Last week, Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello took a major initiative
to protect of the Yanomami land and people. Please see article below for further
information.
Collor has set an example for the governments of the world, showing that a
threatened minority and their traditional land need not be sacrificed to
destructive development.
Actions of such social and environmental import should not go unheeded by the
international community. President Collor deserves to be commended. Please
contact him to express appreciation for this historic action, and support for
the Yanomami. The need for sustainable economic opportunity and adequate health
care are issues of continuing importance for the Yanomami.
Ilmo. Sr.
Fernando Collor de Mello
Presidenta da Republica
Palacio do Planalto
70.150 Brasilia D.F.
Brasil
fax: 011-55-61-226-7566 or 011-55-61-211-1221
telex: 061-1088
BRAZIL PRESIDENT COLLOR SIGNS DECREE PROTECTING YANOMAMI INDIAN LAND
On November 15, Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello signed a decree
legally protecting 36,000 square miles of tropical forest for the Yanomami
Indians in the Amazon states of Roraima and Amazonas. The moved was widely
hailed by environmentalists and human rights activists as a concrete step to
protect the largest still isolated indigenous group in the hemisphere, and
their threatened forest land.
"It's fantastic," said Claudia Andujar, coordinator of the Commission for the
Creation of a Yanomami Park, a private group based in Sao Paulo. "We struggled
for 20 years for what has just happened."
"Brazil has shown the world that it is a responsible global citizen, and that
"development at any price" no longer wins all arguments. When will the U.S. be
able to say as much?" asked EDF Senior Scientist Dr. Stephan Schwartzman.
The Yanomami land, home to some 10,000 Indians in Brazil and that many on the
Venezuelan side of the border, has been the subject of an intense polemic over
the last decade. Invasions of gold and tin miners in the eighties brought
epidemic diseases and destruction of forests and rivers.
When miners' numbers reached some 45,000 in 1987, Indian leaders and activists
warned that the physical survival of the Yanomami was at immediate risk due to
the introduction of malaria and other new diseases soared. Activists argued
strongly for legal demarcation of the entire area, since protection of land
traditionally occupied by Indians is constitutionally guaranteed in Brazil,
and is the minimum necessary step in controlling access to Indian land.
Mining interests, local politicians, and sectors of the military charged that
human rights and environmental appeals in fact concealed an international
conspiracy against Brazilian sovereignty in the Amazon.
"The miners and other development interests said demarcation of Yanomami land
was the first step to creating a "Yanomami state" under the tutleage of Catholic
priests and other sinister foreigners," Schwartzman said.
The fact that Collor's decision was contested to the end by military ministers
suggests the threat of "internationalization" of the Amazon lacks plausibility.
Military ministers delayed the demarcation in October, proposing the creation
of a 20 kilometer-wide "security zone" along the border, which would have
reduced
the Yanomami area substantially.
The demarcation represents a victory for Environmental Secretary Jose
Lutzenberger, who has consistently called for the step, as well as for Indians
and environmental groups in Brazil that have mobilized broad national and
international support for the Yanomami.
In 1988, the United Nations Environmental Program awarded its highest
recognition, the Global 500 award, to Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa Yanomami,
for his work in defense of his people and their land. In June of 1991 on a state
visit to Washington, President Collor heard repeated concerns on the Yanomami
situation from members of Congress, the administration and nongovernmental
environmental organizations.
Eight senators wrote to President Bush during Collor's stay requesting that he
raise the issue directly with Collor. On his return to Brazil, Collor replaced
the National Indian Foundation president with indigenist Sidney Possuelo, who
immediately proposed demarcation of the area.
The long awaited action should strengthen Brazil's case with key industrialized
nations, which are now reviewing a proposed US$ 1.56 billion Brazilian Pilot
Program to protect the Amazon. The plan calls for investment in environmental
agencies and research institutions, demarcation of Indian lands and extractive
reserves, and for community based sustainable development experiments in the
Amazon.
The industrialized countries requested that Brazil prepare the plan during the
Husotn Summit in 1990, but paid it little attention the following year in
London. Some donor nations (and envioronmental groups) had raised concerns
about Brazilian political will to carry out the plan, and no funding has been
made available for it. The demarcation of the Yanomami area, roughly the size
of Portugal, will no doubt serve as a strong argument in favor of
international support for the plan.